His Story
by nuttymeggie
Summary: Sanji tells Zoro about why no one can see all of his face. ZoSan. Crappy title.


A/n: Yes, working on the other fics.

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Zoro looks down at the other occupant of his room, currently with their head of his chest. His lover has a look of utter contentment on what parts of their face Zoro can see.

"What?" His companion says, looking up at him.

"S'nothing," Zoro says. "It's just..." He strokes his lover's cheek. "I've never..."

"You were a virgin?" His lover exclaims, sitting up straight. "I never would have guessed! The way you...and then..!" Zoro goes red.

"Not that!" He says, and they calm down, leaning back into him. "It's just I've never seen your full face, that's all."

Sanji grimaces. He figured this would come up sooner or later. They'd been taking it slow for just over three months, but today he wanted it rough, and fast, and _damn_ was it worth it.

"Not satisfied with knowing you already have my heart and my body, eh?" He says wryly.

"No, that's not it...I don't want to ruin the afterglow, but..." Zoro trails off.

"I know. I understand, don't worry," Sanji says. "Before I show you, though, I have to tell you a story..." He lights up and begins.

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Seven Years Ago:

I was twelve and serving customers on the Baratie that night. We were catering to a real bad crowd that night, but customers were customers. The pandemonium in there came to a head that night when Captain Whizzlefoff got crap-drunk and started getting rowdy.

Don't be fooled by the name, mind you. He was vicious, and the crew were real dogs. I went to serve him more wine when he looked at me with cold eyes, colder than I've ever seen to this day.

"What 'cha doin', hiding that pretty boy face of yers, now?" He asked me. Now, at that time we've only been running the Baratie for a year, and the crap-geezer letting me wait tables for half that. I was scared. Mostly customers stuck to questions and comments about the food, never about me. None had wanted to talk about me directly.

"Wh-what do you mean?" I asked stupidly. He roared.

"You know very well what I mean, young sprout!" He yelled. His hand went up, and one of his crew grabbed me from behind. Too fast he's on me with a thin stiletto knife, slicing at that side of my face. "The problem we seem t'have here, lads, is this 'ere 'air 'round his face!" The crew is laughing and trying to claw at me, and I'm screaming while my face is being attacked with a knife.

After what seems like three lifetimes of hell, the crap-geezer comes out, and and...

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Sanji finally dares to look up at Zoro, sitting there expressionless, the sheet pooled around his waist.

"And?" Zoro prompts.

"The crap-geezer, I guess he goes berserk or something, because when I open my eyes again Whizzlefoff's crew is gone and Whizzlefoff's body is being dragged out the doors by Patty and Carne." Sanji lights up another cigarette, taking a deep drag.

"Next port, I'm getting you those nicotine patch things," Zoro comments absently.

"That's all you have to say, shit-swordsman?" Sanji asks. Zoro shakes his head.

"What about...you're face?" Zoro asks. Sanji sighs.

"Don't freak out. It's not as bad as it looks," Sanji warns, pulling back his curtain of fine blond hair.

Dozens of thin white lines, all over the left side of his face, ending parallel with the end of his nose. The worst is one which directly runs down the middle of his iris, deep looking and bone white, so deep that part of his curly eyebrow grew back white. There are many, and all of them scream pain and agony. Sanji regards Zoro calmly, though inside he's burning, waiting for a reaction.

"Your eye is brown," Zoro observes, reaching out and tracing one of the scars.

"My father," Sanji says. He pauses, looking at Zoro's face. "Okay? Do you see why I hide it now?"

"There's nothing to hide," Zoro says. "Your face looks better without you hiding. More relaxed. And I have scars, too." He grabs Sanji's hand and runs it down Mihawk's scar on his torso.

"But...I didn't tell you...or any of the crew, really..." Sanji hesitates.

"What?" Zoro asks, tracing another scar on his lover's forehead.

"I'm blind in this eye. Whether I hide it or not, I still can't see," Sanji explains in a whisper, looking down. "They couldn't save it..."

In response, Zoro pulls him into a hug, so very simple but so very loving it makes Sanji want to cry or kiss him.

He does both.

"Sh...it's okay...I have you...I'll protect you..." Zoro says quietly, still holding Sanji in a hug as tears leak out of both eyes.

"I know, I know...but still...!" Sanji says, trying to wipe the tears away. "It was seven years ago. I shouldn't...there are still times in the dark, when I'm sure I hear that crowd laughing, and the pain...sometimes at night I swear I'm twelve again, and my eye is being sliced open, again and again."

"Everyone should cry when they lose," Zoro murmurs. "No matter what is is." He pauses. "But this never comes out."

"Us? Or this?" Sanji asks.

"This," Zoro says. "If they find out I'm this soft sometimes I'm done." Sanji chuckles and stops crying.

"Thank you," Sanji says.

"Now, I knew I was good, but..." Zoro says with a smirk. He gets duly rewarded with a kick to his gut, seemingly impossible in the position Sanji's in, but even still. "I know."

"Don't tell them," Sanji warns. Zoro nods, kissing a line down a scar. "You want to go for another round, don't you?" Zoro nods again, capturing the cooks lips.

They aren't seen for the rest of the day.


End file.
